Friday, February 6, 2009

Google Latitude

Just upgraded Google Maps on my phone to version 3 (3.0.0.1 to be exact) and it has Google Latitude. Latitude is a new service from Google that lets you share your location with friends. Location can be obtained through GPS, or cell id or entered directly by you. Your location would be made available to other Latitude users who you authorize to see your location.

The concept is not new. It is also present in Cellspotting an open source cell id based geo-location initiative and few other applications that were seen earlier. But the presentation and integration of Latitude is definitely better.

I love the way Google makes pieces fall in place, like completing a large jigsaw puzzle. You can only get a hint of but never see the complete picture till it is complete. The master planner is steadily putting small pieces together to build something still larger than what we can see. In future we should see locations being shared with applications, location based ads delivered directly and instantly to your phone and finally Google opening up the application space to ad supported 3rd party applications. And may be more, which is not visible yet...